Although the mirror poem is not a recognized genre of poetry, mirrors often perform different literary functions within Victorian poetics. In Mary Elizabeth Coleridge’s “daemonic” poem “The Other Side of a Mirror,” the mirror evolves from a “passive reflector to an active speaker” to challenge the negative, male-conceived notions of women writers (Jackson 46; Freedman 157). Alternatively, in his poetry, Alfred Tennyson uses the mirror to develop the theme of “the soul buried alive within the body” (Joseph, "Victorian Frames" 83). Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” expands on this recurring theme, but it also uses a mirror to perform (depending on the version) either a technical or a mimetic function.
THE ANGEL-WOMAN VS THE MONSTER-WOMAN “The artist’s most essential quality is masterly execution, which is a kind of male gift, and especially marks off men from women, the begetting of one’s thought on paper, on verse or whatever the matter is…on much better consideration it strikes me that the mastery I speak of is not so much in the mind as a puberty in the life of that quality. The male quality is the creative gift.” – Gerard Manley Hopkins The quote by Hopkins embodies the ideal of “male sexuality as the essence of literary power" (Gilbert and Gubar 4). In it, Hopkins claims the gift of writing/creativity is synonymous with “the male quality,” and this gift “marks off men from women.” Hopkins’ commentary is paradigmatic of the time. In the Victorian era, it was commonly thought that the formal arts were a man’s domain because it was an occupation upholding the “ideal of significant action” —the epitome of the masculine sphere (Gilbert and Gubar 24). Male writers even penned the ideal woman in the form of the angel-woman (Gilbert and Gubar 20). The angel-woman—originating from Coventry Patmore’s "The Angel in the House" —conforms to the “ideal of contemplative purity,” the staple of the feminine sphere (Gilbert and Gubar 24). She will be passive, modest, delicate, complaisant, chaste, and the eternal type of female purity: self-less (Gilbert and Gubar 21).
Due to this limiting notion of femininity, Victorian women were deterred from writing in order to uphold the social ideals they were supposed to exemplify. Because writing was considered a wholly male art form, an occupation of significant action, and it required original thought, any woman who indulged their creative side was a deformity: a monster-woman (Gilbert and Gubar 29). Female Victorian writers therefore demonstrated a “monstrous autonomy” (the side of a woman that publicly exerts her independence) when they chose to embark on the literary path (Freedman 157). These women, like Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, did not shy away from writing due to the social constraints of their gender, but instead chose to challenge these constraints by writing feminist pieces and accepting the monster within as a natural part of their identity.
MARY COLERIDGE & THE MONSTER IN THE MIRROR In her lyric poem “The Other Side of a Mirror,” published in 1896, Coleridge uses the mirror to show the other side of her—the “monstrous autonomy” within—as a female writer. The mirror acts as a window into her own identity; the monster-woman that lies behind the facade of the angel-woman she presents to society. The monstrous mirror-woman shows the speaker’s anger and jealousy toward male writers through the “wounded and bleeding mouth” and the “leaping fire / Of jealousy and fierce revenge" (Gilbert and Gubar 76; Coleridge 22-23). As Gilbert and Gubar note in their study The Madwoman in the Attic, the figure in the mirror “arises like a bad dream, bloody, envious, enraged, as if the very process of writing had itself liberated a madwoman" (77). Additionally, the mirrored figure represents the “speechless woe” of female writers as they attempt to find their voice while accepting the negative image they gain by it (Coleridge 17). At the end of her poem, the speaker accepts this raging, repressed, monstrous side of her by declaring “I am she!” (Coleridge 30). Through her speaker’s acceptance of this woman as a secondary identity, Coleridge proclaims to the critics that a literary woman inhabits two lives: she is the angel-woman she presents to the public, and she is also the monster-woman that manipulates, schemes, and plots (Gilbert and Gubar 26).
TWO MIRRORS, TWO MOTIVES In “The Lady of Shalott,” although Alfred Tennyson comments on his Lady’s “smother[ed] psychic state” through the symbolism of the mirror’s shadows and her vague curse, the mirrors of his early version and revised version perform very different roles (Joseph, "Victorian Frames" 83).
As it was originally published in 1832, the mirror of Tennyson’s ballad is simply a mirror with a practical purpose. Since tapestries are woven from the opposite side, a mirror is employed for the weaver to view the scene from its correct angle: “Before [the lady] hangs a mirror clear” in order for her to properly perform her task (Joseph, "The Echo" 408; Tennyson 49). In contrast, the introduction of the mirror in the 1842 version becomes associated with the “Shadows of the world” due to its placement in the stanza (Tennyson 48). Reflected in this mirror is an imitation of the world the Lady is forbidden to view, which gives the mirror a mimetic function (Joseph, "The Echo" 409). Interestingly, the Lady herself performs a mimetic/ecphrastic act as she translates what she sees in the mirror to her tapestry.
-- AJ Saxby, UVic Engl 386/2012W
Works Cited: Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth. “The Other Side of a Mirror.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. Collins and Vivienne J. Rundle. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2005. 1133. Print.
Freedman, W. "The Monster In Plath's Mirror' (English)." Papers On Language & Literature 29.2 (0001): 152-169. Francis. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Gubar, Susan. “The Queen’s Looking Glass: Female Creativity, Male Images of Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity.” The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.
Jackson, Vanessa Furse. "Breaking The Quiet Surface: The Shorter Poems Of Mary Coleridge." English Literature In Transition (1880-1920) 39.1 (1996): 41-62. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Joseph, Gerhard. “The Echo and the Mirror ‘en abime’ in Victorian Poetry.” Victorian Poetry 23.4 (1985): 408. Print.
Joseph, Gerhard. “Victorian Frames: The Windows and Mirrors of Browning, Arnold, and Tennyson”. Victorian Poetry 16.1/2 (1978): 70–87. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
THE ANGEL-WOMAN VS THE MONSTER-WOMAN
“The artist’s most essential quality is masterly execution, which is a kind of male gift, and especially marks off men from women, the begetting of one’s thought on paper, on verse or whatever the matter is…on much better consideration it strikes me that the mastery I speak of is not so much in the mind as a puberty in the life of that quality. The male quality is the creative gift.” – Gerard Manley Hopkins
The quote by Hopkins embodies the ideal of “male sexuality as the essence of literary power" (Gilbert and Gubar 4). In it, Hopkins claims the gift of writing/creativity is synonymous with “the male quality,” and this gift “marks off men from women.” Hopkins’ commentary is paradigmatic of the time. In the Victorian era, it was commonly thought that the formal arts were a man’s domain because it was an occupation upholding the “ideal of significant action” —the epitome of the masculine sphere (Gilbert and Gubar 24). Male writers even penned the ideal woman in the form of the angel-woman (Gilbert and Gubar 20). The angel-woman—originating from Coventry Patmore’s "The Angel in the House" —conforms to the “ideal of contemplative purity,” the staple of the feminine sphere (Gilbert and Gubar 24). She will be passive, modest, delicate, complaisant, chaste, and the eternal type of female purity: self-less (Gilbert and Gubar 21).
Due to this limiting notion of femininity, Victorian women were deterred from writing in order to uphold the social ideals they were supposed to exemplify. Because writing was considered a wholly male art form, an occupation of significant action, and it required original thought, any woman who indulged their creative side was a deformity: a monster-woman (Gilbert and Gubar 29). Female Victorian writers therefore demonstrated a “monstrous autonomy” (the side of a woman that publicly exerts her independence) when they chose to embark on the literary path (Freedman 157). These women, like Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, did not shy away from writing due to the social constraints of their gender, but instead chose to challenge these constraints by writing feminist pieces and accepting the monster within as a natural part of their identity.
MARY COLERIDGE & THE MONSTER IN THE MIRROR
In her lyric poem “The Other Side of a Mirror,” published in 1896, Coleridge uses the mirror to show the other side of her—the “monstrous autonomy” within—as a female writer. The mirror acts as a window into her own identity; the monster-woman that lies behind the facade of the angel-woman she presents to society. The monstrous mirror-woman shows the speaker’s anger and jealousy toward male writers through the “wounded and bleeding mouth” and the “leaping fire / Of jealousy and fierce revenge" (Gilbert and Gubar 76; Coleridge 22-23). As Gilbert and Gubar note in their study The Madwoman in the Attic, the figure in the mirror “arises like a bad dream, bloody, envious, enraged, as if the very process of writing had itself liberated a madwoman" (77). Additionally, the mirrored figure represents the “speechless woe” of female writers as they attempt to find their voice while accepting the negative image they gain by it (Coleridge 17). At the end of her poem, the speaker accepts this raging, repressed, monstrous side of her by declaring “I am she!” (Coleridge 30). Through her speaker’s acceptance of this woman as a secondary identity, Coleridge proclaims to the critics that a literary woman inhabits two lives: she is the angel-woman she presents to the public, and she is also the monster-woman that manipulates, schemes, and plots (Gilbert and Gubar 26).
TWO MIRRORS, TWO MOTIVES
In “The Lady of Shalott,” although Alfred Tennyson comments on his Lady’s “smother[ed] psychic state” through the symbolism of the mirror’s shadows and her vague curse, the mirrors of his early version and revised version perform very different roles (Joseph, "Victorian Frames" 83).
As it was originally published in 1832, the mirror of Tennyson’s ballad is simply a mirror with a practical purpose. Since tapestries are woven from the opposite side, a mirror is employed for the weaver to view the scene from its correct angle: “Before [the lady] hangs a mirror clear” in order for her to properly perform her task (Joseph, "The Echo" 408; Tennyson 49). In contrast, the introduction of the mirror in the 1842 version becomes associated with the “Shadows of the world” due to its placement in the stanza (Tennyson 48). Reflected in this mirror is an imitation of the world the Lady is forbidden to view, which gives the mirror a mimetic function (Joseph, "The Echo" 409). Interestingly, the Lady herself performs a mimetic/ecphrastic act as she translates what she sees in the mirror to her tapestry.
-- AJ Saxby, UVic Engl 386/2012W
Works Cited:
Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth. “The Other Side of a Mirror.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. Collins and Vivienne J. Rundle. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2005. 1133. Print.
Freedman, W. "The Monster In Plath's Mirror' (English)." Papers On Language & Literature 29.2 (0001): 152-169. Francis. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Gubar, Susan. “The Queen’s Looking Glass: Female Creativity, Male Images of Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity.” The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.
Jackson, Vanessa Furse. "Breaking The Quiet Surface: The Shorter Poems Of Mary Coleridge." English Literature In Transition (1880-1920) 39.1 (1996): 41-62. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Joseph, Gerhard. “The Echo and the Mirror ‘en abime’ in Victorian Poetry.” Victorian Poetry 23.4 (1985): 408. Print.
Joseph, Gerhard. “Victorian Frames: The Windows and Mirrors of Browning, Arnold, and Tennyson”. Victorian Poetry 16.1/2 (1978): 70–87. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Collins, Thomas J., and Vivienne J. Rundle. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2005. 162-65. Print.
Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott (1832).” Representative Poetry Online. Web. 16 March. 2012.